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Committee structure

Council

The full Council
comprises of 74 members who meet together on dates agreed at the
Annual Council Meeting and most meetings are usually open to the
public. Here Councillors decide
Council’s overall policies and set the budget framework each
year. Meetings are chaired by the
Speaker, who is also the Vice-Chairman of the Council. Both the Chairman and Vice-Chairman can come from
any party, though in practice they usually belong to the same party
as members of the Cabinet.

Cabinet

The Cabinet is
responsible for most day-to-day decisions, which it has to make in
line with the Council’s overall policies and
budget. The Cabinet, or the Executive,
consists of the Leader and up to 9 other members, normally from the
ruling party. Cabinet meets on dates
agreed by the Leader to agree the policies of the
Council. Individual Cabinet Members
(Portfolio Holders) have also been given certain delegated powers
by the Leader to take decisions. Executive decisions are also taken
by the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership Joint Executive
Committee.

Scrutiny

Scrutiny (also
known as Overview and Scrutiny) is vital to the work of the Council
and its partners. It helps to develop
policy, improve the performance of the Council, and holds the
Cabinet and Portfolio Holders to account for their
decisions. Scrutiny looks at Council
services as well as services provided by other local agencies and
organisations. There are currently 5
formal scrutiny committees all with a membership of 10
councillors.